Pakistani unique qawwali master: Who is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan?

Their meeting with Peter Gabriel, the lead singer of Genesis, one of the most influential bands of the 70s, in 1985 undoubtedly contributed to Ali Khan's recognition outside Pakistan. When Gabriel's search and Ali Han's journey intersected, albums began to be released, which are an indisputable gift to the world's musical heritage.

The artist's contribution to traditional qawwali, who started working with Peter Gabriel's Virgin/Real World Record company, is to combine the richness of interpretation of this genre with improvisational performances, especially jazz, and to transform the authentic performance, which has a harder rhythm perception, into a sound that marches with a partially softer rhythm. and as he gets to know modern music, he takes advantage of its opportunities and delivers a completely different stage presentation that is unique to him.

We have stated that the master's domain is not limited to the musical form he represents. For example, the main Western artist who falls into this area of influence is undoubtedly Jan Garberek. “Also, it is due to his influence that qawwali motifs appear in the hard-rock genre.”

Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music. Often called the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali" (the King of Kings of Qawwali), he is considered by The New York Times to be the greatest qawwali singer of his generation.

He has collaborated with some of the world's most important names in jazz, pop, and rock music such as Massive Attack, Michael Brooks, Eddie Vedder, Bjork, and Madonna, and some have lined up to perform a duet with him, and his voice and music have become popular in The Last Temptation Of, directed by Martin Scorsese. His use in the films Natural Born Killers and Dead Man Walking, especially Christ, made it possible for him to be accepted in different geographies as a mysterious and extraordinary artist until his death in 1997, and to expand the influence of his music and his philosophy, which is nourished by the Sufi belief he represents.

I have always thought that in addition to Nusret Fatih Ali Han's voice, which is bestowed on rare people in the world, his improvisations while telling his listeners about the transcendent with his octave power that transcends borders, also contributed significantly to this effect we mentioned. The music of Ali Khan aims to take his listeners who kneel down and sit in front of him on spiritual journeys with the love of God, to take them away from the weights of the objective world and to give them a unique taste of the spiritual universe, as required by his Sufi belief, the state where sometimes enthusiasm and attraction are reached and sometimes they are invited to tranquility is the state that we mentioned at the beginning of the article and that the West is trying to seek. In fact, it gains its identity thanks to "improvisation", which is one of the richest things it has produced. This is undoubtedly where the effective power of qawwali comes from. It is possible to see in his music the aesthetic expression of a transcendental state and supplication that cannot be expressed in words, by making improvisations that exceed the performance of a bluesman.

Nusret Fatih's transfer of the aesthetic logic he gained by benefiting from the musical knowledge of other cultures to his qawwali performance has made him one of the rare names that can break away from his own authentic boundaries and find a response all over the world.

Nusrat Fatih Ali Khan, who was born in 1948 in Faisalabad, Pakistan, as the child of a famous Qawwali performer family, is the most important representative of the Qawwali musical tradition. His father, Ali Khan, a famous Qawwal, actually wants his son Nusrat Fateh to become a doctor. But despite all the insistence, he begins to secretly listen to and sing songs. He joined his uncle Mubarak Ali Khan's group in 1964, one year after his father's death. His uncle passed away in 1971. Nusrat Fateh, who won the favor of his other uncle, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, with his talent, continues to listen to his father and uncle's recordings and improve his music, trying to find his own style. With the death of his uncle, Nusrat Fateh takes over the leadership of the group.

Nusrat Fateh has also studied Indian Classical Music and continues to practice classical music as well as performing Qawwali. He received the Pakistani music representative honor plaque at the classical music festival he attended. He often gives concerts in Europe and America. He tries new styles other than the usual Qawwali. Western music motifs, hand clapping, and Indian ragas are some of them.

Adhering to the Sufi tradition, Nusrat Fateh announces the divine message to the masses through his music. He changes the course of his concerts depending on the audience's interest and familiarity with Sufi philosophy. He focuses on improvisations in his music and lyrics according to the audience's reaction. In a message-oriented concert, the lyrics become more important than the melody. While he gave concerts to convey a message in his own country, he worked to promote melody-oriented music culture abroad.

Nusrat Fateh, who performs Qawwali adhering to the original and sometimes accompanied by Western instruments, is accused by some circles of spoiling the essence of the Qawwali tradition due to this attitude, but what he really wants to do is to save Qawwali from being the music of the upper classes and deliver it to a wide audience, to the world.

Due to the power, depth, and tranquility of his voice, the master was described as "the voice from heaven", "the civilization of sound", "the man who made the rain cry" and "the brightest star of Qawwali". Rolling Stone magazine called Nusrat Fateh "the best voice in the world". Rock and Blues star Jeff Buckley is his biggest fan. In an interview with him, he said, “I didn't understand most of the words, but your voice was conveying your message to my heart. You were saying it with love, from deep inside."